Greetings, dear readers. I have a whole ton of Alien Frontiers news headed your way from Clever Mojo Games today. Enjoy!

First up: Artist Mark Maxwell has officially signed with Clever Mojo to produce art for the first expansion to Alien Frontiers – Factions. The Factions expansion has an expected release date of March 1, 2012, and (as of this post) will include 8 Factions boards, representing various organizations with special powers vying for control of the surface of the alien planet. Also included will be 8 new Alien Tech cards, a deck of Agenda cards which will grant points depending on certain end-game scenarios, as well as dice and colony tokens that will allow a fifth player to join in the race for planetary domination!

In addition to Mark Maxwell, graphic designer Karim Chakroun has also committed to the Factions project, which means the Factions boards will not only be pretty – they’ll also be highly functional.

I have had a chance to play Factions at Origins and back home, and the special Faction powers add a unique twist to the game. Each Faction has an ability that is available only to them which gives them a certain advantage during the game, as well as a spot on their Faction board for players to dock a single die. Once docked there, players may pay the Faction owner one solar fuel to activate an ability, such as moving their colony an extra space on the Colonists Hub track, or being immune to Raiding for the entire turn. Factions is still in the playtest phase, so be sure to check back with Dice Hate Me from time to time for more info. on its development as it nears the publish date.

In addition to expansion news, the 3rd printing of Alien Frontiers is expected to touch down on August 31. This printing will include North America, as well as European distributors. Dice Hate Me will have more on the availability of the 3rd printing as the landing date draws near.

Related posts:

1. A New Frontier for Alien Frontiers
2. Alien Frontiers News: All Systems Go for Second Printing
3. Alien Frontiers Second Printing Delayed
4. Alien Frontiers: The First Transport is Away!
5. Alien Frontiers: The Best of All Worlds